As fieldbus technology proliferates and crosses all geographic barriers to aid closer technological cooperation, the effort is toward successfully developing a truly robust and deterministic fieldbus for multiple industry uses. With high speed industrial Ethernet making inroads into the automation industry, most fieldbus manufacturers are gearing up for its encapsulation. Profibus is today's market leader with a strong presence in all geographic segments while Foundation Fieldbus is growing at the fastest pace among the fieldbuses.

This Frost & Sullivan research studies the world markets for Ethernet and fieldbus technology in industrial automation. It provides valuable analysis of market drivers and restraints, and offers forecasts identifying the areas of growth. The study covers enterprise, control, device, and sensor fieldbus networks.

Technological Innovations and Improvements the Order of the Day

"In spite of the initial high cost, the benefits obtained from fieldbus systems are immense including great cost savings," says the author of this study. "The fieldbus industry is constantly improving its products down to the device and system levels in order to better meet end-user specifications and to increase customer satisfaction."

The process market shows the maximum growth for the fieldbus industry and with manufacturing becoming increasingly global, numerous opportunities for fieldbus systems are opening up at the shop floor level.

Adopting one common standard is expected to aid the continuous upsurge in growth. For now, switchover to branded fieldbuses is common while most non-fieldbus systems and the non-standard buses are gradually being phased out.

Mergers, Acquisitions Foster Expansion and Create Economy of Scale and Cost Competitiveness

"Whether it is Fieldbus Foundation or Siemens with SMAR in North America; the alliances with Wipro in India; Dongyang in China; the intension is to provide logistic support to existing and potential users. Even in Endress+Hauser's innovative technology alliance, the fieldbus market expansion is the end purpose," observes the author.

Greater reliance on fieldbus performance has caused a shift to fieldbus automated systems and new strategic mergers are focusing on pooling the best technological resources available and increasing market coverage and penetration.

The teaming up of ABB and Aventis Pharmaceuticals to work in the area of process automation is an indicator of the user industry and automation manufacturers taking a pragmatic approach to evolve more systems that are suitable in the future. The success of these technological advances and their deployment are likely to dictate the market penetration and the popularity of fieldbuses.